EU bureaucrats escalating Russia-EU confrontation on purpose - Lavrov
MOSCOW. March 10 (Interfax) - The EU administration has been intentionally escalating tensions between Russia and the European Union, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"It is so happening that EU bureaucrats in Brussels are deliberately escalating the confrontation between Russia and the European Union," he said at a press conference following negotiations with Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo.
For example, Brussels often tries to present the situation "in a way as if there were no progress in the fulfillment of the military provisions of the Minsk deal and, thereby, to postpone the implementation of the political provisions of the Minsk agreements and, simultaneously, to hinder normalization between EU members and the Russian Federation favored by many states," the Russian minister said.
So, Lavrov suggested that "EU member countries should set certain limits for bureaucrats seated in Brussels and speaking on behalf of 28 member states through a consensus building process."
He said it was very important to prevent the interference of third parties in the achievement of EU interests.
"European Union Council President Donald Tusk spoke with U.S. President Barack Obama a short time ago, and his press service published a commentary which said, if I am right, that the European Union was unable to make decisions concerning Russia as rapidly as the United States would want it to," the foreign minister stated.
"Whenever the head of the European Union Council says, and he even sounds apologetic, that they are unable to act as regards Russia as rapidly as the United States of America would like, that is a bit strange," Lavrov said.